Future cheque deposits go mobile

In the near future, customers might not even have to visit a bank or an ATM to deposit a cheque. They'll simply snap a couple of photos of it with their cellphone, says Austin American-Statesman.

Applications for that purpose are already available from USAA, a company that provides insurance and banking mainly for military veterans, Apple's iPhone, and other mobile devices.

Although the technology, known as remote-deposit capture, promises to save consumers time, it adds a new wrinkle to concerns about fraud and the privacy of financial data. But the banks and the technology companies helping them say they have largely overcome these concerns.

The Bank of America Merrill Lynch is to work with a new technology network to enable its corporate clients to access their banking details online, reports Bobsguide.

According to the financial services provider, it is planning to use the IdenTrust's Trust Prime electronic bank account management (e-Bam) infrastructure and become part of the IdenTrust Trust Network.

Joining this infrastructure will enable the organisation to reduce its costs by implementing a 'fully electronic' account system while clients will be provided with 'digital identities' to enable them to access their banking services from any location.

State Bank of India (SBI) said at the CII Banking Tech Summit held in Mumbai last week that it's focusing on mobile banking and will soon issue tenders for the payment system gateway solutions, according to Telcomyatra.

OP Bhatt, chairman, State Bank of India, said in a statement issued by CII: "We are emphasising mobile banking along with some major technology projects like data warehousing this year. Tenders will be issued for the payment system gateway solutions to increase the use of technology (in SBI banks)."

In November last year, SBI introduced a service which allows customers to open no-frills savings accounts called SBI Mini savings bank accounts that can be operated with zero minimum balance through a mobile phone.